CIA in turmoil under new director

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The US Central Intelligence Agency is in a state of upheaval,
with several senior officers resigning or threatening to leave due
to internal conflict under new director Porter Goss.

Sources said the White House had ordered Mr Goss to purge the
agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to US President
George Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about
the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White
House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties
with the agency and the White House.

"Goss was given instructions . . . to get rid of those soft
leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White
House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing
the President's agenda."

Several senior CIA officials have clashed with chief of staff
Patrick Murray, and criticised Mr Goss for giving him too much
authority over day-to-day operations. "It's the worst roiling I've
ever heard of," one former senior official familiar with the events
said.

On Friday, Stephen Kappes, the deputy director of clandestine
services, the CIA's most powerful division, tendered his
resignation after a confrontation with Mr Murray. Several other
senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave
according to current and former agency officials.

A wave of resignations could hurt the CIA as it struggles to
combat al-Qaeda and track insurgents in Iraq, amid US congressional
moves to reorganise the agency, which has come under fire for
intelligence failures in Iraq and in the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the United States. CIA deputy director John McLaughlin announced
his "purely personal decision" to retire on Friday after more than
30 years at the spy agency. Officials said he resigned after
warning Mr Goss that Mr Murray was treating senior officials
disrespectfully.

But a CIA spokesman said that the retirement had been planned
and was unrelated to Mr Kappes' resignation or to other morale
problems inside the CIA.

The CIA declined to comment on the issues raised by the current
and former officials.

Mr Murray formerly served under Mr Goss as chief of staff on the
House intelligence committee, which Mr Goss chaired. The panel
harshly criticised the CIA in a report issued in June.

Mr Goss, a former spy turned lawmaker who led congressional
efforts to reform intelligence-gathering, took the helm of the CIA
in September, replacing George Tenet.

He moved swiftly to put a new leadership team in place, amid
intense political pressure for an overhaul of the US intelligence
establishment in response to the weaknesses exposed by the
September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.